Overseas Pakistanis liable to pay tax on bringing more than one mobile phone : Chaudhary

ISLAMABAD: Overseas Pakistani’s bringing more than one mobile phone in the country will have to pay duties, said Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary on Tuesday.

While answering to a tweet querying the government’s decision to impose a ban on overseas Pakistani’s carrying cellphones to the country, Mr Chaudhary stated, “Overseas Pakistan can bring cell phones to the country, but there is a tax on additional mobile phone sets.”

He added, “There is a negligible tax on phones costing less than $60, however, on costlier ones it is 38% duty, and this is the most reasonable taxation. We will have to embrace the tax culture.”

Mr Chaudhary in his tweet highlighted the country was spending $2 billion on mobile phone imports and how will they operate if taxes are not levied, he asked.

The Minister of State for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar in a series of tweets on Tuesday further elaborated the process of mobile tax policy and how it will work:

In response to a tweet asking who came up with this policy, Mr Azhar replied: